I am a current junior in high school and my unweighted GPA is a 3.65. I did however get a C+ in my first semester of honors algebra 2 in my junior year after 4 semesters of straight A’s in my math courses. All other grades have been A’s and B’s. I got a 27 on the act after taking the test blind, and plan to get my score up to at least a 31. I am a varsity football player from California, and a first generation college student who is planning on applying early decision to Lehigh’s business school. What are my chances of getting in and how much does my C+ affect those chances.
I think it is fantastic you are a junior and starting to plan! Keep this habit up and you will do very well in what ever you choose to do.
My son’s GPA was similar to yours. One C+ will not affect your chances - my son had a couple. And he took the ACT completely unprepared the first time and didn’t do that well either. We signed him up for a 6 week Kaplan ACT test prep course and he bumped his composite score up 5 points - well worth the investment.
I have to ask - why are you planning to apply early decision and what is your understanding of an early decision application? This is super important!
Best. Kikkydee
I am planning on applying early decision because I am certain that if I get in I want to attend. Also while looking at the history from my high school I realized that a very low precent of admitted students attend. I want to show the admissions office that I am very serious about going to the school.
You are a fantastic planner and great strategizing! You will do very well in the business world! I am attaching a thread that explains Lehigh’s Early Decision program.
“The Early Decision plan is not for everyone. It is for the student who has begun early and been active in his or her college search, and is sure that he or she wants to attend Lehigh. While pursuing admission under the Early Decision plan, students may apply to other institutions, but may only have one Early Decision application pending at any time. Additionally, Early Decision candidates forfeit the ability to compare financial aid offers from other schools.”
Every year there is one of two poor students who have gotten accepted early decision and then they are upset because they can’t afford to attend because the financial aid offered is not what they expected. Please, please talk to your parents and be certain you can afford to pay whatever Lehigh does not offer. There are no guarantees for any certain amount for financial aid.
I think you sound just like savvy student Lehigh loves. If you raise the ACT score you might get in regular admission too. If you can, visit the campus this summer or have a really good reason not to - like living half way across the country!!! Haha. Make sure you register with admissions when you visit. Also, ask for an interview. I am sure you will interview really well!!!
Best of luck to you!!! Hope you keep posting! It will be fun to follow your progress!!!
Along with agreeing with what @kikkydee said above, I would also suggest that you might consider taking the SAT instead. Two reasons for it are firstly, this allows you to trash your ACT. You are permitted to send one type of test (ACT or SAT) to the school and not required to send both (although you can if you want). So if you do well on the SAT they don’t have to see your ACT score. By the way, you ACT score is fine, you did well, it’s just that Lehigh is a moderately hard entry so they have a more rigorous admission requirement.
Secondly, there is an article that explains how some people take to the SAT differently than the ACT. Some people’s minds find one type of test easier on their brains than the other type. This may be the thing with you, you never know.
As was said above, you show a personality of aggressive foresight that Lehigh looks for, good luck to you.
@reformedman,
Thanks for the input. I will definitely consider taking the SAT. The reason that I decided to take the ACT was that I liked that there was a science section, which ended up being my best score. I also compared my ACT score to the PSAT score I got this year, and my scores significantly favored the ACT. Either way, I think it is a great idea to take the SAT as well.